word the record is explicit, very; but at what particular moment in God's calendar he commenced the creation of matter, the record is not quite so clear; but it is stated in language plain and positive, that the two "great lights," and the stars were set in “the firmament of the heavens,” for the especial benefit of the earth on the "fourth day" of the work of creation.

SEC. 3. According to the record, God did all his work of matter and world-creating on the first, second, and fourth days of creation; and, he worked off man, but not the woman, in the afternoon of the sixth day-woman was manufactured by him after the man had taken possession of the garden, and had received authority over the animal creation; and after he had given names to all the cattle, and to all the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. To repeat: according to Moses' averment, in the first, second and fourth days of creation, God did all the work of creating inanimate matter, below vegetable life. On the third day, he arranged the matter that he ereated in the two preceding days, and created the grasses and the fruit-bearing trees. On the fifth day, God made the whales and the wigglers, and the finy tribes, and every living creature that moveth in the waters. In the forenoon of the sixth day, God created the beasts of the earth, the cattle and every thing that creepeth upon the earth. In the afternoon of the sixth day, he constructed, out of previously created matter, the corporeal structure of man, and quickened it with his breath. Woman, and the necessity of having woman a part of the creation, was an afterthought with Moses' God. This, his original plan, was a very unhappy one to man, surely, but he saw his mistake and corrected it, and at a very early day in man's history. By the change in introducing woman into his society, and in making her a partner in his joys, and of his sorrows, man was more than compensated for the loss of that rib out of which Moses' God made the woman. Such is the Pentateuchal account of creation.

SEC. 4. Days, were days, in the times in which the recorded matter of the Pentateuch was written; then when the language used distinctly expressed one thing, no one suspected that the averment made meant another, and diverse, thing, from that which was spoken. But in these latter times have arisen audacious individuals, Bible Idolaters, who have assumed the prerogative of stretching out the Bible "days" to the immeasurable, and interminable, length of "indefinite periods." Until a very late day, there was no uncertainty in the minds of the believing readers of the Pentateuch, as to the length of these specified periods of time, six creative and work days, and one rest day. All, so-called, orthodox religious teachers believed, and taught, that six diurnal revolutions of the earth was all, and the exact quantum, of time taken by God in the stupendous labor of creating universal worlds and all matter intermediate those worlds, and in putting into operation the worlds and all the things that he created. These same teachers, one and all, taught that God's resting day was that period during the diurnal revolution of the earth next succeeding the six creative or work days—the next twentyfour hours.

SEC. 5. The dogma of Moses, religiously believed in Jewry and in Christendom, that matter was spoken into existence by the power of God's word, is an hallucinationit is an assumption which cannot be maintained by any testimony of facts. The nature and laws of matter, generally, deny that it was brought into being in that mode, or manMatter is coexistent with God, neither ante-dates the other-they are coeternal; this is confirmed by both Reason and Philosophy. Each exists by virtue of its own laws, and they operate for distinct purposes, and for ends directly opposite-the forces of matter for selfish ends, for self-conservation, and the laws of God for benevolent

ner.

purposes.

SEC. 6. Then, again, the age of the primitive Rocks of our earth, and the age of the great lights, and of the starry

heavens, are beyond the computation of the human mind-God only knows the times of the commencement of their separate congelation. Matter is as insensible, or unknowing, concerning its origin, and of its own laws, and of the operation of its forces, as are the unborn millions of the human family of things of the present. As to the date of that fiat of God which, according to Moses' averment, brought light to the world, and the starry heaven, with all its surroundings and appendages, into being, and which separated the waters above from the waters beneath, it is not altogether clear; but the genuine creeds of orthodoxy, so-called, says that this order went forth from God, and the consequent events transpired, a little less than six thousand years ago.

SEC. 7. Without entering into an elaborate examination and refutation of the Chronological falsity, based on Bible data, of 6,000 years as being the age of the earth, and of man, I will here state that the science of Geology, with the aid of a Common Sense interpretation of facts, has revealed to the world the fact that the Mississippi Delta was inhabited by Man having conformation like that of the Aboriginal Americans, at least, fifty-seven thousand years ago; and that the Mississippi River had poured its vast volumes of waters into the Gulf of Mexico, near its present embouchure, or present mouths, for more than one hundred and fifty thousand years. Then, the revelations of Geology extend further: this science has shown that the Mississippi River has flowed through the Delta, in its present bed, or near it, for more than one hundred thousand years, and that long anterior to its flowing in its present channel it received the muddy waters of the Missouri, and the waters of other northern rivers, and brought down their alluvium and detritus, carrying them past the high Bluffs that once formed the northern boundary of the Gulf, now several hundreds of miles inland; there building up and forming that Delta over which the waters of the Mississippi now run on their course to the Gulf. What is manifest in the

Delta of the Mississippi, as to the great age of the world and of man, if possible, is shown yet more plainly in and about other great rivers and deltas; also on the higher grounds of our own Valley, and also on the Continent in South America.

SEC. 8. As corroborative testimony of my asseverations, and as evidence of the falsity of Moses' declarations, I will copy a short extract from the "Types of Mankind,” a work of merit, and which is highly esteemed by all scientific men who are acquainted with it, and are free of bigotry. In speaking of Dr. Dowler's published essay, "Tableaux of New Orleans," the "Types" says: From an investigation of the successive growths of cypress forests around that city, the stumps of which are still found at different depths, directly overlying each other; from the great size of these trees, and from the remains of Indian bones and pottery found below the roots of some of these stumps, he arrives at the following conclusion:

"From these data it appears that the human race existed in the delta (of the Mississippi) more than fifty-seven thousand gears ago; and that ten subterranean forests, and the one now yrowing, will show that an exuberant flora existed in Louisiana more than one hundred thousand years anterior to these

evidences of man's existence."

SEC. 9. The foregoing kind of testimony might be accumulated to a very great extent, but a single fact is just as conclusive evidence as ten thousand would be; yet, notwithstanding this, I will bring before the mind one or two other facts confirmatory of the great age of the world, and of the great length of time that animal life, and man, has existed on our earth. The facts developed in the year 1845 by the finding, and exhuming, by Dr. Koch, the fossil remains of the monster serpent, by him called, “Hydrarchos," proves, beyond a peradventure, periods of time, here, long anterior to Moses' chronological data. This animal which, when living, must have measured, at least, 130 feet, was found embedded in a stratum of upheaved yellow limestone. According to the description of the surroundings

as given by Dr. Koch, which appeared in the public prints soon after he made the discovery, above the stratum in which these fossil bones were embedded, were one submarine volcanic stratum and three strata of oceanic deposits. By scientific calculation, based on these strata, the destruction of the animal to which these fossil remains belonged was more than four millions of years ago, and they were elevated, by subterranean disruption, to the place from whence they were disinterred by Dr. Koch, some time during the past million and eight thousand years. Notwithstanding this computation of the period of the sportive days of the Hydrarchos, and that its day antedates the Mosaic creation more than four millions of years, this Hydrarchos did not enter upon his life-career at the dawn of creation. The first formation of this earth antedates his formation millions of years.

SEC. 10. Before the finding of the Hydrarchos, Dr. Koch had found, in Missouri, and exhumed the fossil remains of the gigantic "Missourium," of the Mastodon order. These fossil bones were found below the strata of, what are called, antediluvian plants and shells; and, underneath the thigh bone of this fossilized animal, of long time since, was found by Dr. Koch an arrow head, of simple form-said to be, not unlike those found in almost every part of our country. Here, at once, these questions spring up: Who made, and who shot, that arrow? Was it shot by a descendant of the first settler of Mesopotamia, Adam, so called by Moses? or was the bow which sped that arrow bent by a native American-by one of a people of many millions of whom Moses knew nothing, nor ever surmised, even, that any such people then existed, or had ever existed, on the same globe with himself. The writer of the Mosaic record had no more knowledge of this continent, and its inhabitants, than the present barbarous inhabitants of Central Africa have knowledge of the Intelligences that dwell on planets never reached by the most powerful telescope ever constructed by man. The Mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley, and